1973 Paris Auto Show - Karmann Stand, ......and the Flag Cars Options

[wonkipop]

@JeffBowlsby

good thing i got my 914 out this morning on dawn patrol.
had a great drive down in the docklands wasteland with no nongs in SUVs blocking my various hooligan antics. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

nows its cold/raining this afternoon but i am still in 914 mood/mode.

dragged out the Karmann Stand @ Paris Auto Show 1973 photos i dug up.
i discovered them on a blog about historic car shows.
they were captioned as from the Paris Auto show 1973.

time to check veracity.
image 1 i found.



compare and contrast with image from ludwigson on your can am website (from excellence). checks out. see notes on photos. its from paris 1973 if K L is to be trusted. and normally he can be.



these appear to be the two cars you term Can Am prototype 2 and 3.

from your website.


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which led me to the mystery car on the stand you term protogype 4
and which ludwigson described.



and this other image i dug up from the blog.
its definitely another 914 that was on the stand at the Paris Auto Show.
it was captioned as but additionally the carpet floor tiles on the stand are a match for photo of other 2 cars on stand as are general decor wall colors and graphic thematic.



i conclude two possibilities.
1). this is the image of the third car you seek and K L was mistaken. it did not have drop out side stripes as per porsche turbo on porsche stand. instead it had the earlier form of side stripes. it was not an USA model.
or
2) there was a 4th car on the stand and this is it and the drop out side stripes remains still to be found. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


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additional trivia.

this ones been of interest to me for a while.
the five cars that come under the banner of prototype 1 in your website.
frankfurt auto show cars. the 5 cars with flag themes to do with Can Am.

here is your explanation of the flags and what they represent.




a better clearer picture of the 5 cars in question.




ok i can't see anything french in these graphics or canadian.
i've looked hard.
all that is there is USA, UK and Germany.
no pausible symbols relating to french or canadians.

but i think i cracked it.
there are 5 cars because porsche participated in the CAN AM series for 5 seasons.
1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973.
(winning the series in 72 and 73).
they did not enter in 66, 67 , 68.

and the teams that fielded porsche cars during those five years were from 3 countries.
UK, Germany and USA.

Penske (USA) , J.W.A. (UK) , A G Dean (UK) , Martini Racing (Germany), Porsche-Audi North America. (USA).

its not about the drivers. they came from backgrounds including canada, mexico, brazil and switzerland as well as UK, USA. its just the teams.
thats my theory anyway.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i wouldn't mind betting there is very specific intentions in the livery that relates each of the 5 cars specifically to each of the teams. but i don't know enough about the particulars of the teams that would be the clue. the english ones are very interesting.
i can see why you thought the one with rondels might have been french. but the french rondel (air force) is a blue dot and red outer ring. thats the UK rondel from the royal air force. its a pointed reference. either J W automotive (john wyer) or A.G. Dean had something to do with the Royal Air Force. same goes for the USA team cars. one of them is very flamboyant.

whoever designed these liveries was really having fun. i think they are very literate as they say in art criticism circles.

[JeffBowlsby]

Wow. What excellent info you have researched and the sidebar context is tremendous. Your research matches mine, and with greater detail.

The Can Am cars were built from mid-February thru the 1st week of April. Promotion by US dealers began in April/May. One of the earliest cars is the Matsuda Japan SL that George Hussey owns, built first day of production, and it has the negative stripes.

I think you are on to something with that L&M car color scheme and the Creamsicle, LIKE the reference. That CS color scheme is also on the 73 911RS cars. But not the black/yellow combo, I have not found a literal reference for that scheme.

Good on you...

[wonkipop]

Wow. What excellent info you have researched and the sidebar context is tremendous. Your research matches mine, and with greater detail.

The Can Am cars were built from mid-February thru the 1st week of April. Promotion by US dealers began in April/May. One of the earliest cars is the Matsuda Japan SL that George Hussey owns, built first day of production, and it has the negative stripes.

I think you are on to something with that L&M car color scheme and the Creamsicle, LIKE the reference. That CS color scheme is also on the 73 911RS cars. But not the black/yellow combo, I have not found a literal reference for that scheme.

Good on you...

going after images of porsche stand at frankfurt auto show 1973 where the turbo debuted with the drop out side stripes.

found image of one of the long sides of the display stand.
where 911s were lined up (other side to where the lilac or purplish 914 is in other photos).
gets interesting.
they all have the drop out graphics side stripe as per the turbo.



its from this book.



description of the display cars shines a light.
all cars were painted shades of pearl pink through to lilac including the 914s.
in description (limited to the 911s) it notes as well as the special paint color the term "cross hatched PORSCHE script". this must be how porsche refer to the drop out graphics side stripe?

hard not to think that in sept 73 at time of frankfurt show they are thinking of using the drop out graphics on the carrera range.
and the turbo proto carries the same proposed script.
so its not exactly true that the script appears for the first time on the turbo proto.
rather the script appears for the first time on all the porsches at the frankfurt show stand.

i have only two photos showing the side of display with the 914s. i assume there were at least 2. the 1.8 and the 2.0. but only the 1.8 is visible in the photos above in previous posts. the 1.8 does not appear to have the side stripe script at this time.

it seems like the original idea might have been that this was what the Carreras would have as graphic decals.

maybe......what happened.....is they changed their mind on the carreras and went for the cursive script and given they had the design already for the drop out script they shifted that across for use updating the 74 914s just in time to save the "can am" after porsche left the Can AM series?